Babe: Pig in the City

Months after the events of the first film, Babe and his master, Arthur Hoggett, are given a welcome home parade after Babe's success as a "sheepdog". One day, Babe inadvertently causes an accident and Arthur is severely injured. His wife, Esme, is unsuccessful tending the farm alone.

Soon, two men from the bank arrive to inform Esme that she and Arthur have not paid their rent on time, and they will soon be evicted. Esme locates a letter saying that if she enters Babe in a sheepdog herding contest, held at a fair far away, she will receive a large amount of money. She decides to enter Babe and they leave the farm together.

At the airport in the city of Metropolis, a sniffer dog falsely signals that Babe and Esme are carrying illegal substances. Airport security officers interrogate them, causing them to miss their connecting flight. An airport cleaner informs them about a hotel that is suitable for accommodating animals, so Esme and Babe go there.

While Esme runs an errand, Babe chases a black and white capuchin monkey after he steals Esme's suitcase. Fleeing into a hotel room, Babe follows the capuchin monkey and meets three clothed chimpanzees named Bob, Zootie and Easy, as well as Thelonius, an orangutan butler for the landlady's elderly uncle, Fugly Floom, a clown who kidnaps Babe to use in his act. Babe initially refuses, but accepts when the chimps mention a reward he will receive after doing the act.

When Esme returns, Fugly tricks her into thinking that Babe ran off into the city. Esme leaves to look for Babe, but is arrested after inadvertently causing mayhem with some hooligan bikers and police officers. Fugly performs his clown act at a hospital, but the act is thrown into chaos when Babe accidentally trips him and causes him to throw a flaming torch into the stage curtains, setting them on fire and forcing everyone out.

The next morning, Fugly goes to the hospital in a food coma escorted by the landlady. Babe is in his room, hungry and waiting for Esme to return. That night, the chimps try to steal food from a store and use Babe to distract two guard dogs, who chase Babe around the city. Babe falls into a river and swims away, but returns and saves one of the dogs from drowning. The bullterrier Tug becomes friends with Babe, and Babe invites him and the other homeless animals into the hotel. They share food and then sing, alerting the duck Ferdinand who was searching for Babe. Zootie gives birth to twins, and the animals celebrate.

Animal control officers are called to capture all the animals and seize them, except for Babe, the capuchin monkey, duck Ferdinand and Jack Russell Terrier Flealick. After a brief argument with Ferdinand about losing his animal friends, Babe decides to go rescue them. The next day, Esme is released after explaining her reasons why she caused a mess in the city. That night, Babe, the capuchin monkey, Flealick, and Ferdinand sneak into animal control and open their friends' cages. Esme returns to the hotel and reunites with the landlady, who is mourning her uncle's death, and tells Esme that her neighbor, Hortense, was the one who called the animal control to take the animals away. Esme and the landlady confront Hortense to find out where the animals have been sent, then set off to find them.

Esme and the landlady track the animals to a charity dinner in the hospital's ballroom, and manage to get them back. Afterwards, the landlady sells the hotel and gives the money to Esme so she can save the farm. The landlady and the animals come to stay at the farm, where Arthur has recovered from his injury. Arthur proudly watches Babe, and says, "That'll do, pig. That'll do."

Christine Cavanaugh, who played Babe in the first movie, was approached to reprise her role, but declined when contract negotiations fell through.[7] Cavanaugh was eventually replaced by her Rugrats co-star E. G. Daily.[8] The director of the successful first movie, Chris Noonan, was also missing from Babe: Pig in the City, with directorial duties handled by George Miller (Noonan was reportedly not even invited to the premiere Australian screening).[9]

Prior to the film's theatrical release, it was originally rated PG by the MPAA.[10] The TV spots for the film's theatrical release mentioned this rating, as did a promotional poster. By the time the film was released in theaters it had been re-rated as G due to the film being re-edited and submitted again for review.[10]

Babe: Pig in the City takes place in an imaginative, fantasy-like metropolis. It notably resembles Oz but is in modern-day form. The city has numerous styles of architecture from around the world. It also has a variety of waterways, noticeable by the hotel at which Babe stays. The downtown area appears to be situated on an island not dissimilar to Manhattan Island. The Downtown Skyline features numerous landmarks such as the World Trade Center, the Sears Tower, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the IDS Center, the MetLife Building, the Sydney Opera House, the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Fernsehturm Berlin, Big Ben, St. Basil's Cathedral of Moscow's Red Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Christ the Redeemer statue, among others.[1]

The DVD covers feature a similar but different skyline, keeping the World Trade Center, the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Ben, the Sydney Opera House, and Red Square. Several skyscrapers added include 40 Wall Street (Two of them), the Empire State Building, 500 5th Avenue, the Flatiron Building, the World Financial Center, and several Los Angeles skyscrapers including the U.S. Bank Tower. The river near the hotel is similar to the canals of Venice, Italy, or Amsterdam, Netherlands.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has 65% approval rating based on 65 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.24/10.[11] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A+ to F.[12] On Metacritic the film carries a score of 68, based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]

On release the film was panned by most critics, receiving the lowest marks, most believed the sequel had lost the innocence of the original; Empire's Andrew Collins said, "Where Babe brought deep-rooted joy, the sequel brings fidgety depression" and awarded the film one star.[14] Janet Maslin of The New York Times said, "It will work as a sequel only hard-core Babe fans willing to follow this four-legged hero (or heroine, as Babe obviously is in some scenes) anywhere. Had Pig in the City been made first, it by no means could have prompted a sequel of its own."[15] American film critic Gene Siskel, on the other hand, named it as his choice for the best movie of 1998, over more adult-oriented films like Saving Private Ryan, Life Is Beautiful and Shakespeare in Love.[16] Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and said it was "more magical than the original Babe."[1]

In the decades since Babe: Pig in the City's release, the movie has developed a cult following.[4] Tom Waits expressed appreciation for the film during a 2010 interview with Mojo Magazine.[17] Radio personality/podcaster Jesse Thorn has also praised the film.[18]

Peter Gabriel's "That'll Do", written and composed by Randy Newman, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 71st Academy Awards.

The musical score for Babe: Pig in the City was composed by Nigel Westlake, who previously wrote the music for Babe. A soundtrack album was released on 24 November 1998 by Geffen Records featuring Westlake's score, music inspired to the movie...as well as sound clips taken from film. The soundtrack also includes source music such as "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller and "That's Amore" by Dean Martin. Additional tracks include the Academy Award-nominated theme song "That'll Do" and a song sung by Elizabeth Daily, the voice of Babe.

The film was released on VHS, DVD (in both widescreen and pan and scan formats), and laserdisc on 4 May 1999. On 22 May 2001, the film was released on DVD as a 2-pack with the original Babe. On 23 September 2003, it was re-released on DVD as part of "The Complete Adventure Two-Movie Pig Pack" in its separate widescreen and pan and scan formats. On 12 November 2004, it was re-released onto DVD as part of a Family Double Feature, which includes Babe with the widescreen and the pan and scan versions of the film. On 7 May 2013, it was released on Blu-ray for the 15th Anniversary Edition of the film's release and re-released on Blu-ray by Fabulous Films Limited in UK on 17 June 2017.

In 2006, a universally-panned video game based on the film was released on PlayStation 2.[19]

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Babe: Pig in the City.

• Babe: Pig in the City at AllMovie
• Babe: Pig in the City at IMDb
• Babe: Pig in the City at Box Office Mojo
• Babe: Pig in the City at Rotten Tomatoes
• Babe: Pig in the City at Ozmovies